1986 – Start of the adventure
Through Heliskiing in Canada and Rafting in New Zealand, the college friends Charly Siegl and Werner Vetter discover a trend which has been barely known in Europe: The Outdoor Movement. Fascinated by the mixture of adventure, sport, and nature experience they found their own organization while still studying: faszinatour Abenteuerreisen GmbH. |
Expeditions lead customers who are looking for adventures to Nepal, Guatemala, the USA, Venezuela, or Zimbabwe, where they experience first descents on rivers, mountaineering, and cultural treasures. The name of the company "faszinatour" stands for the program and the philosophy at the same time: It is about fascination through extraordinary tours and intensive experiences in nature.
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The 80’s – Outdoor is in
The idea catches on and takes off: In the 80’s, the outdoor movement experiences a boom – and faszinatour is up front as one of the first outfitters in Europe. We do pioneer work and inspire a growing number of customers with extraordinary and up to then almost unknown sports like rafting. The success story of the young company has started.
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1991 – A home in Haiming
Why longing for the distance? faszinatour opens outdoor centers in Haiming and Pfunds, bringing the adventure to Austria: These centers have the perfect ambiance and are an ideal location for rafting-, canyoning-, or mountain bike tours in mind-goggling nature. Our youth adventure camps and the sport-and-fun-combinations are held here – and are to this day some of our most popular programs.
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The 90’s – The canyons as the road of success
The 90’s bring a new trend – this time from France. And again, faszinatour is ahead of the game: We are the first German company to offer canyoning. We develop the tours jointly with a French expert and eventually train raft guides and mountain guides to become canyoning guides; with these actions we can provide our customers with a maximum in safety and quality. And the effort pays off: Today, canyoning is one of the most booked activities of our program. |
1992 – Adventure meets business
Scientists and coaches discover how joint challenges in nature can convey new experiences and achieve sustained success in teambuilding and team-development if used appropriately. Commercial enterprises start to utilize outdoor methods for their personal development. As one of the first providers on the German market, faszinatour gains a great reputation through innovative leadership outdoor trainings.
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1994 - Clear the slopes for a new sport
The founders of faszinatour prove their sense for innovative trends in various areas: In 1994 they are celebrated by the media when they drop off the ski jumping Olympiaschanze in Seefeld, inventing a new sport called "Snowspeedrafting".
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1997 – faszinatour realigns
Once more we embrace being a trendsetter and found a new department in our organization: A special team is now devoted to a new branch unknown in Germany– the conception and construction of high ropes courses as well as special recreation centers. In 1997, faszinatour opens the first high ropes course in Germany.
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So many new things do not always fit under the old roof. As a logical consequence, the organization realigns, subdivides into the five branches "Adventure & Sports", "Consulting & Training", "Incentive & Event", "Experiential Education", "Conception & Construction", and gives itself a new name: faszinatour Touristik-Training-Event GmbH.
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1998 – Tracking new adventures
Despite the new structure and increasing economical success, we have not lost our passion for adventures: In 1998 we raft the Colorado River with 20 employees and business friends to explore the Grand Canyon by ourselves after having waited 15 years for the private permit.
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The same year, we bring a new sport to the market once more: Freewheeling – skiing in summer. Using inline skates and poles, you speed down the black diamonds. In a joint effort with K2, we install academies for the new sport in Germany and Austria and initiate the "freewheeling Cup".
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2001 - Gone great
After the wild adventures of the previous years, a new awareness for health is in the air, fitness and body awareness being the new topics. Combining walking with Nordic-Walking-Poles and the use of heart rate monitors, we are the first organization to provide a particularly gentle and efficient workout – nature experience inclusive.
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2003 – Skyrocketing in the air and on the ground
With American engineers, we develop a high ropes course made of steel with an end-to-end belay system: Germany’s first Sky Trail is created.
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At the same time we jointly found the Adventure Racing Network with our partners in order to establish a new sport in Germany: In an adventure race, several teams start against each other in various outdoor sports. In a joint effort, a team has to master distances up to 200 kilometers depending on the race. With Team adidas Natventure being world class in Adventure Racing, we belong to the top teams from the very beginning.
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2005 – Adventure 20th
The former student-run company has become a successful business: Celebrating the 20th faszinatour season in Tyrol with a lot of events, old and new employees, and many of our to date 30.000 yearly customers.
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This same year, we build the first outside-SkyTrail for Germany’s third largest Recreation Park, the Hansa Park. With its unique concept and design, the "Navajo Trail – path of the chiefs" inspires thousands of visitors every year.
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2006 – Treetops are top
We build the first two high ropes courses in the woods which we run ourselves and create concepts for woodland rope parks as customer order for the first time. At the same time, we work on a comprehensive norm for high ropes courses and initiate new safety standards in this field.
After the successful phase of conception, we build six woodland rope parks in Germany and Austria that comply to our strict quality standards. We are currently planning and realizing additional woodland rope parks for our customers in the entire German-speaking region.
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2007 – The adventure goes on
As a consequence of the new peak the outdoor-field goes through, faszinatour virtually experiences a boom: With a unique range of service we are now the leader of the European market for services in the outdoor-field. About 30.000 guests start out into adventures with our 35 permanent and 200 free employees every year.
Our enthusiasm for humans and nature is still as present as ever and always leads us on to discover new ventures. This is how novel offers and concepts are created. An example of our latest novelties would be the faszinatour Trainee Outdoor Programs, which have been utilized by more and more organizations for their personal development since they were started in 2007.
The work in the field of Trainings and Seminars and our interest in enduring learning methods exposes us to the clinic Wollmarshöhe, with which we conjointly found the “Institution for Learning by Experience”. It deals with the method of learning by experience with regard to personal development, health prevention, therapy of stress-affected people and integrated methods of teaching and learning in the area of education and breeding.
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2008 – We start a small revolution…
A topic, which is, across all areas of entrepreneurship, dear to one’s heart, is the secureness of our clients. That is why we constantly search for new ways of security and better solutions.
The outcome of this is, after years of development and testing, the faszinatour Smart Belay®, which we introduce in summer 2008: a revolutionary self-belaying-system, which almost completely eliminates the danger of opening and unhinging the belay system. It ensures more safeness to clients and visitors of high ropes courses and forest ropes courses – and at the same time brings us the renowned Outdoor Industry Award for the highest level of innovation and outstanding creation.
We also get in on other areas right at the front: since June 2008 we are the main sponsor of the most successful German Adventure Racing Team, which from now on keeps moving on the road of success as Team faszinatour.
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